I'm not sure they eat them. I get the impression they just want to suck out the DNA. I'm not sure what happens if someone's DNA is sucked out -- perhaps they turn into some kind of living dead. At the very least they couldn't pass on their genetic material!

I have been advised by the freds that they have decided to locate the being known as Little Hawk, based on a rumour that his flesh tastes like Canadian Ham. However, I stoutly declined to help them find him. There are limits after all, and I consider him my friend.

Yes, it did happen. She used a one shot from a Colt Woodsman .22 pistol, defending her child (if my memory serves). The bear was about 9 feet top to bottom.

This was not then and is not now a recommended cartridge for hunting any bear, much less one of those big Alaskan brownies. Should you try it I suggest that you leave word with your next of kin and have your life insurance not only paid up, but checked to be certain that the "suicide clause" won't leave your beneficiaries penniless. Collecting your parts for the funeral could be difficult, however....

I also heard a story about a woman who killed an attacking grizzly at short range with a .22. The bullet went through the bear's eye and into its brain. That's about the only way you possibly could kill a large bear with a .22, I'd figure, and I sure wouldn't want to try it.

If it did happen, she was just very, very lucky. And the bear was very unlucky.

The sad thing is that you lived to tell lies about him, rather than him about you. Sigh. Gnu, I am sorry not to hear the details. it being a granny makes it even more wesome in prospect. We do love a good story!!

Sorry, A... busy day... fact is, twas not I what slayed the carnivore. Twas a wee gramma alone in her teepee while the rest of the families were away. And it was years ago that I read the story in a newspaper. No support for it.

We don't get big bears down here. Biggest I ever saw was 740 pounds, 11 inch brow. Seen em bigger in pics, but nowt like a Kodiak. THEY are scarey.

Sam Clemens taught me. He and I used to swill beer and chase girls in towns from Louisiana to Keokuk. Sammy boy could outlie me, but I could drink more beer and hold it better than he could. Deponent sayeth not about the young ladies.

No, I wasn't being lazy. Absolutely not. I genuinely wanted to give you the pleasure of explaining the expression "mon vieux" to me, as I knew you would. ;-) That's the kind of guy I am, genial and compassionate to a fault and always looking to bring a little more light and happiness into the lives of others. My geniality and compassion, in fact, are exceeded only by my modesty!

Can you relate to any of this, Rapaire? ;-D

Say (Rapaire), that story you told about the two guys swearing a blue streak, and the resulting detonation creating the hole that made the Great Lakes...THAT was the best tall tale I've heard yet from you. You must be the King of Liars! Didn't Mark Twain write about someone like that?

Well, I don't know...I've been laughing heartily here at this end as I type my posts. Perhaps you are also laughing heartily at the other end as you type yours. I don't know. Perhaps neither one of us is getting defensive? Maybe you actually DO find my imaginative characters all deeply interesting and are waiting with bated breath for their every future post. It's really hard to tell when one is staring at a faceless computer screen.

What does "mon vieux" mean? Is it some form of affectionate address? I could just look it up, but it's more fun to give you a chance to tell me.

Speaking of vibrators, Amos, have you tried out the large one yet with the little cone-shaped protrusions all over it that also plays "The Star Spangled Banner" (the Jimmy Hendrix version) in time with your wrist motions? I think you should. It might cheer you up some and help defuse these smouldering resentments you seem to harbour toward me and my imaginative companions and their intrusions here upon these sacred pages.

This is so interesting! Little Hawk's imaginary companion having a conversation with Rapaire on the imagined use of imaginary weapons, on Chongo's part, in contrast with Rapaire's real but perfectly rationalized ones.

Chongo, if you really want to stay alive and preserve your physical safety I recommend two pieces of equipment both of which I am sure Little Hawk will be more than happy to dream up for you. One is a long-blade light saber, the kind that can take a head off at thirty yards or punch a hole in a gorilla's carotid from the next block. The other is a ray gun which can be set on "stun", "blast" or "needle" depending on the requirements of the confrontation. If you get one disguised in the form of a lady's vibrator, the cops will never take it away from you--just tell them you got it as a present for your sister.

It appears I must drive to the office to find a single piece of paper for an auditor who is visiting the office today. The accounts clerk doesn't have time to look in the one place where it could possibly be, she says. Evokes the names of her superiors who say I must drive over.

So, what was questioned was not that you have objets d'art, but that a crew-served machine gun would qualify to fulfill a requirement to own some in order to live in Idaho. Not that this was not my notion, but one you raised; now you are circling it like a cat preparing to bury a turd. But I am proud of your colelction, I would love to live in your library and drool over your rare books, especially the Twain.

Except for Boise Angeles and the State of Ada, Idaho is rural. Because of this it attracts whackos who think they can live as they like, no matter what the law says. Usually, if they mind there own business and don't harm anyone else, they can -- but that's true 'most anywhere. I have two statues on the Library grounds -- I'll send photos next week if I am PM'ed email addresses -- and permanent exhibits of paintings and photographs in the Library. The paintings include a 350 year old Japanese Ema painting and the magnum opus of the pretty damned unknown American painter Albert H. Ulrich. The photos include some of Jerry Garcia, Janis, Peter Townsend, and Peter York. We has a 1629 history (in Latin) of the Council of Trent and a collection of autographed books Amos would drool over: Where the Wild Things Are and Heretics of Dune among them. There is a first edition of Mark Twain's The American Claimant. These books cover an entire wall.

There are more local music groups, ranging from Cowboy to Chamber, than you can imagine. Folk thrives. Come September, the Library is hosting Spook Handy and Bob Nelson. I'm working with the U on a special musical project, the details of which I am NOT at liberty to disclose.

We have our own Symphonoy AND City Band.

What other Arts, Amos? Textiles? -- we have two or three active quilt groups, weavers, spinners. And nobody has been in a gunfight for oh, weeks and weeks and weeks.

If you could convince me that (a) people living in the State of Idaho are required to own objets d'art AND (b) that crew-served machine guns qualify as a fulfillment of this requirement, I would be most impressed with Idaho, and would conclude it was a good deal more complex a place than I had ever given it credit for.

The .22s are for target shooting. The .38 is actually my brother's. The .357 is a single-action revolver for Cowboy Action Shooting, someday. The 7.65 and the .45 are my wife's, inherited from her late father.

The rest are long guns, intended for hunting (if and when, someday again).

The crew-served weapons like the .50 caliber machine gun are, ah, objets d'art? Required if you live in Idaho? Something I don't have and can't afford and couldn't shoot if I did have them?

"Consider the story of the Egyptian god Thoth as it was told by Plato. Thoth has invented writing and proudly offers it as a gift to the king of Egypt, declaring it "an elixir of memory and wisdom". But the king is horrified, and tells him: "This invention will induce forgetfulness in the souls of those who have learned it, because they will not need to exercise their memories, being able to rely on what is written…rather than, from within, their own unaided powers to call things to mind. So it's not a remedy for memory, but for reminding, that you have discovered. And as for wisdom, you are equipping your pupils with only a semblance of it, not with truth."

That was written 2,400 years ago, and Lloyd pointed out that similar arguments about inevitable damage to human thinking and memory attended the arrival of printing in the 15th century AD. We seem to have survived both shocks with our capacity for general knowledge intact, indeed enhanced. That puts modern concerns into perspective. "

A... that would be because Canucks are not slick nor gamblers. We are a gentle people who choose right in deed and choose justice for all those who would join us in our quest for peace and freedom for all.

I never faced off against grizz either. From what they tell me, ya gotta have heavy firepower (minimum 30 cal. long gun) fer them and make yer first shot count. If worst comes to worst ya can carry a real heavy caliber handgun too as a last resort if the rifle don't stop him...but that's fer humans. If yer a chimp, you just get them boots off REAL fast and shinny it up the nearest large tree.